About lou sarg
 

It was during my travels in Spain, where I first learned and fell in love with the rustic craft of woodcarving. Sitting in the serene Catalan Pyrenees while whittling my first wooden spoon from a fresh cut fallen cherry tree, I noticed how quiet and focused my mind had become. All my senses engaged, the sound of the blade, the scent of timber, and the rough grain softening with each shaving. I say, it was love at first whittle.

It was no wonder that whittling expressed through me the summer of 2015, as woodwork runs in my blood and heritage. Before immigrating from Guatemala, my father was a fine furniture and cabinet maker and my grandfather was a skilled carpenter. I feel honored to carry on the lineage of this craft within my family.

I first experimented making simple utensils with one carving and hook knife. I gifted most of these pieces to friends around the globe I collected along my travels. The response always humbled me, but after much encouragement and support, I ventured into creating commissioned custom designs.

Every piece that I carve is a unique representation of my passion for the craft, the fruit of my imagination and a tangible work of wooden art. No two pieces will ever be identical as I source my materials from various sites and countries- such as mountains, lumber yards and anywhere I hear a chainsaw in the distance.

It is a gratifying journey transforming raw reclaimed lumber; envisioning its new form, and then carving it by hand into a signature piece of wearable art. The reclaimed wood carries forward a legacy of its former life, be it a barn, a door, a window, a chair as well as the tree from which it was first formed. Now become an heirloom piece with a new story to tell.